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Milestone, one of the most recognized racing videogame developers and publishers for consoles and Windows PC, is glad to announce the development of the first PlaystationŽNetwork and XBox LIVEŽ digital title: WRC Powerslide, which comes out in March.

WRC Powerslide is the brand new game, developed by Milestone, which mixes amazing and exciting gameplay elements in one game. With a colorful and smart style, this new title offer the chance to try all the WRC licensed elements with an arcade attitude.

Pick up a car from WRC Class, Class 2 and Class 3, choose between 8 different rallies, compete against your friends/opponents on the same special stage and collect special Power Ups. Thanks to an arcade physic and a brand on top camera the action will be frenetic as never before.

I went ahead and picked it up. Agreed that $15 is steep but I looked at it as a donation to help get the WRC some North American face time. We are long overdue for a true WRC game, and while this is not it, helping fly the WRC flag this side of the pond can't hurt.

My favorite part of this game is indeed the rallies. Hello Greece my old friend. It has been a long time since I've seen all the countries in one game. Most modern 'rally' titles offer your stock "desert", "wooded", "mudded" and "paved" courses with no consideration to what makes the individual countries so different. It was joy see on all these miniature replicas in one spot.

My least favorite part was the lack of a cohesive design. Does it want to be a miniWRC game or a kart racer. The tracks are fantastic, point-to-point races lined with rocks, berms, cliffs and trees. The tiny little cars however, are floaty. More suitable for kart racing than weaving narrow tree lined passages where the slightest misstep can hook you up. On top of this the AI cars are much more grounded. Rubbin' will always leave you on the loosing end - usually into a tree or off a cliff. Whatever the case the car handling doesn't mix well with the tracks and the entire game soon devolves into how fast you can reset your car. A tall tell sign your game probably needs some work is if you have to map the car reset to a face button.

While the 'power ups' are poorly executed they do add some spice to the game. Unfortunately that spice also requires you to have collisions on and that means a lot of fights with the AI you don't win. When you turn both off it becomes a mini WRC game with bad physics and more than a few viewing obstructions.

I would have had nothing wrong with a silly arcade kart racer skinned in the WRC or a WRC game miniaturized. It is just too bad the developers couldn't make up their mind and instead built a game that doesn't work on either level.

I apologize for being slightly off topic, but as a fan of rally racing, I was wondering if anyone knew whether a new rally game (not a arcade kart-type game like this one) is on the horizon at any point. Is the Dirt series finished?

Same company makes a WRC game for Xbox and PS3 but you have to import it if you live in North America. It came out last fall I think. Went looking on Youtube and came across this video....eerily similar menus to the XBLA game.

I am sure we will see Dirt sometime after the new consoles. Its kind of a stinky rally game in the true sense but really there is almost no choice on the consoles. You could try Forza Horizon + Rally DLC if you are really hurting for a rally title. It has a pretty good feel and some decent roads but no damage.

They're fine. I actually prefer an always connected experience.
I'd really prefer an offline way to play, but its not a bother.
I don't really like them, and am more reluctant to buy a game because of it.
I won't buy them. I want my games offline.